With a creaking noise and a stutter, the elevator door of the Ziv 127 residence building is anything but a smooth ride. Stepping in, the door lags to a close. Pressing the button to the fourth floor, just above the keys is the proof of inspection. This is not unordinary: Every elevator in the state of Massachusetts is required to display their inspection certificate.

As the elevator begins to lift, observers may notice the date on the displayed piece of paper: Aug. 24, 2024 valid through Aug. 24, 2025. Either this elevator hasn’t been inspected in over a year or the University has neglected to update its signage.

As the University has expanded over the years, and continues with the new dormitory project set to open in 2027, elevators have become a necessary feature of new buildings for convenience and accessibility purposes. 

It’s not to imply that the University has been negligent — this may actually be a problem that expands beyond Loop Road and across the greater Boston area. In Massachusetts, there is a lack of elevator inspectors and businesses are expected to schedule inspections months in advance.

Local reports dating all the way back to 2019 suggest that thousands of elevators all across the state are operating with expired certificates as their requests for reinspection remain on a backlog.

According to an article published by the Boston Herald in 2018, “Massachusetts has 54 inspectors for 41,000 elevators, and can get to only about 75 percent of them before their annual inspection certifications expire.”

The issue dates back more than a decade. The Boston Globe reported in May 2010 that an audit found that a third of the elevators across the state had expired inspections, and many of them had been expired for several years. Despite calls on the state to reform their elevator inspection process, it seems that the backlog continued to grow. 

The elevators with updated certifications seem to be in locations that are likely to see the most traffic. At the bottom of campus, the elevator in the Shapiro Campus Center displays a certificate with an expiration date in August 2026. 

However, that pattern does not remain completely consistent. The elevator located in the Mandel Center for the Humanities has a certificate that expired in July of this year.

What about the elevators that don’t display any signage? Well, it’s illegal in Massachusetts, but it is not unheard of. While working in the Goldfarb Library, Jaiden Van Bork ’26 encountered this issue firsthand when all she could find was a handwritten number where the certificate is meant to be displayed. She told The Justice in an Oct. 23 interview, “No license is even displayed in the elevator, the number might lead to a public record though.”

The other elevator located in the Farber Library, however, is up to date on its inspection. Most of the elevators on campus are accompanied by a QR code in case the elevator is broken, but what happens when the license is expired or nonexistent?

The code, which brings scanners to the facilities service request page, does not give an option for reporting an expired inspection. Scott Hamel, Building Trades Supervisor at Brandeis, told The Justice on Oct. 27 that the University is aware of the expired inspections across campus. According to Hamel, “The elevators are being inspected as we speak. This is a work in progress, as they get inspected the certificates of inspection are being put in.” Facilities and the University did not comment any further on the process of inspection.

The inspection delay and potential inspector shortage may be a symptom of the nationwide labor crisis in the United States. A report conducted by the Bipartisan Policy Center, a non-profit that promotes policy work across party lines, suggests that the labor crisis in the construction and transportation sectors is set to increase. Their report found that worker shortages will increase in the coming years due to an aging workforce, lack of interested applicants and inconsistent compensation.

Other than raising general concern among students and the broader Brandeis community, the lack of elevator inspection also poses a threat to accessibility on campus. 

Brandeis Student Accessibility Support has raised concerns over the inspection delays. Kim Johnson, the director of SAS, said that they are aware of the issue and it is in ongoing discussion within the Campus Accessibility Committee here on campus. Unfortunately, the repairs are beyond the scope of SAS. Johnson told The Justice on Oct. 27, “While SAS advocates for accessibility-related concerns, elevator maintenance and inspections fall under the purview of Facilities Services.”

The Accessibility Committee was chartered in February 2025 and is composed of students, faculty and staff, aimed at addressing concerns for accessibility within the community. While CAC is pushing for more transparency about the elevator certifications, the fate of the inspections are solely in the hands of Brandeis Facilities.

This is not the first time that the University has encountered issues with accessibility. In February 2024, The Justice published an editorial highlighting inconsistencies with accessibility across campus. These instances include buildings without elevators, residence halls like East Quadrangle with completely inaccessible infrastructure and the absence of ramps and automatic dorms in academic buildings.

Although Brandeis has made efforts to make the campus more accessible for students with disabilities, such as the construction of a ramp to the Brandeis Counseling Center building, there are still inconsistencies with their commitments.

As of press time, it is unclear how many elevators remain uninspected on campus, and the University has not provided a timeline for when all of the elevators will be up to code.